Over the last few years, it seems my neighbors have become very concerned about power outages. I will be honest, I don’t enjoy them and I’d like to have a home generator, but after looking at the costs to purchase and installation, I have a hard time justifying the cost. Some have spent as much as $10K or more to have a whole house generator professionally installed.
But we live in the suburbs. No power doesn’t mean water doesn’t work, because it’s city supplied. No wells.
During hurricane Sandy we were without power for 2 days. A year before that, there was an ice storm which took out power for longer, it was 4-5 days. The worst of it, was we had to toss what was in the fridge. We powered out cell phones using power from the car. For the sump pump, after a few days it started to rise slowly, so I used one of those devices you connect with a hose and run water to drain it. I will admit, it was an inconvenience but even if I knew this was going to happen, there is no way I would have spent $10K out of pocket to prevent it.
When I add up the total number of hours without power over the last 15 years we have been in this house, it sounds incredibly expensive to have had a generator during that time. A new neighbor moved in a couple of months ago, and immediately he had a generator installed. I was reminded of this, because we lost power for literally 2 minutes tonight and I heard it kick on.
I realize the companies selling these things do a good job of scaring people into buying them, showing the home owners living in suburbs where the power is rarely out and when it is, it isn’t for extended periods of time. I could see if you lived in a rural area, where the well water won’t pump, and it takes longer for power to be restored than in the suburbs. But the ads seem to be targeted at people living in the suburbs.
Anyone have a generator for their home living in the suburbs? How do you justify the cost? What do you really fear most is going to happen without power that you feel you need this? If I am overlooking something, please enlighten me.
Personally, I can’t see having a built-in home generator unless a person lives somewhere with common outages and very spotty electricity. Places that get snowed in for months or a really poor grids.
A cheaper version might be those portable gas powered generators? We’ve looked at them sometimes at the end of hurricane season, when they were over ordered and on sale. (They aren’t that expensive; we’re just cheap, ahem, FRUGAL.) I’ve gone thru several hurricanes (Texas Gulf Coast) and have lost power from a few hours (meh) to a few days (sucked, but ended up meeting neighbors b/c we had to try to grill every bit of food in the fridge) to 2 weeks. For the two weeks, we were able to scrounge a place to stay from my folks. They had a house they were working on flipping. It lost power for a few days, and then got it back. On the few days the power was out, a neighbor with a gas generator offered to let us run an extension cord to charge phones, run a fan, etc. It made the few days much more pleasant.
I had a power outage of 1 week, maybe more, about 10 years ago. All of the hotels were filled to capacity. Imagine no electricity in your house for that amount of time. No lamp, no light no motor car, oh, wait…
At any rate, no refrigerator, no internet, only candles or portable lights, having to drive extra far for batteries. Do you have an electric water heater? How about your C/H&A? Entertainment for the kids/shut-ins? Burglar alarm?
In my case, I went across town and bought a gasoline powered generator and a bunch of electrical cords to go with it, and hooked up what was essential for our needs.
I did make one huge mistake, tho. I bought a generator that was made to generate three times the number of watts that I used, and, consequently spent about 25 dollars a day on gasoline, and had to refill it about 3 times a day. I should have got a smaller one, and could have saved money on the unit and gasoline, as well as effort.
So, to me, the grief saved, then, would have been worth it. Now, tho, I live alone so it may be an adventure.
BTW, I lived in the suburbs/city. Didn’t help a bit.
Here in NH we lose power for 24 hours or more about once a year. I have a 3500 watt portable generator that keeps my fridge cold and supplies enough power for some lights and the TV and internet. Furnace and well are out though, so it is still like camping in your house. I heat with a kerosene heater, and fill the bath tub for toilet flushing.
The longest outage was after the ice storm of '08. Eleven days, most of it in single digit temperatures.
I don’t actually have one but I’m planning on installing one when I remodel my house in a couple years. I also live in the country not the suburbs.
That said, I think it’s a semiluxurious purchase for most people and should be justified the way other semi luxurious purchases are. For example, contrast a generator with central heat or with central AC.
Having central heat (in most of the country) is the easiest to justify. Beyond comfort, you get the pleasure of not worrying about your pipes bursting every night. I know exceptionally frugal people who try to heat their whole house with a wood stove in the living room but for most people it’s not even a question they would ever consider.
AC isn’t nearly as easily justified. It’s largely about inhabitant comfort and in most of the country there are homes all around you without AC. The fact that it’s not necessary and other people live without it does nothing to make it unjustifiable to me… I hate being uncomfortable in my home for months a year.
Then you get to a generator, which makes you comfortable during a rare outage, but also can keep the heat on so your pipes don’t burst in the winter and can keep your food from spoiling in the summer. Of course it only does those things extremely rarely.
So my point is, it’s clearly not an absolute necessity for most people, but it’s a comfort preserving tool with the potential to avoid some serious hassles and lost money. It’s not going to make sense for many people if you reduce it to dollars, you need to decide how much you hate staying at your in-laws and replacing a bunch of steaks you had in your freezer.
Personally, my parents and in-laws are already in their 60s. I’d rather plan on becoming the house people come to during outages than have to deal with packing up my family. Also, my impression is that we’re unwilling to invest sufficiently in our infrastructure (aging electrical grid in this case) and that climate change will lead to an increase in severe weather in my area. I’m not expecting dramatic changes but it seems to me the safe bet is that outages will increase during the rest of my lifetime, rather than decrease or stay the same.
I am in the situation where no power = no water, also I was in the situation where power failures were common as many trees overgrown the basically unmaintained local power grid. Poles would only be replaced when they fell down, and many stood at steep angles. We had several blackouts that lasted more then a full week, this normally happened when a early ice storm took out so many of these power lines that it took that long to get to the ones we needed to be fixed.
Over the years and after 2 years of back to back 7+ days w/o power on very cold days the power company put in new power lines, transformers and some poles, it also cut back the tress drastically. The new lines are now insulated instead of bear wire, the new transformers if there is a short will cut power and then try to reestablish it every so often. This will clear a momentary short due to wind or a tree causing the wires to touch.
From those efforts power outages are far less and of far less duration.
What was almost a necessity has now becomes something that is somewhat reassuring to have, however I have not started it in over 3 years, and I do wonder about it’s condition due to non-use/no maintenance. Every so often I feel I should run it but don’t get around to it.
I do have a gas generator, which adds to the not running it and storage concerns, OTOH it was about 10x cheaper then the alternative, and still would be far cheaper if I had to buy a second gas generator as a backup.
Again I have not run the gas one in a while, but it always worked. Occasionally ran rough, but smoothed out after running a few hours. Hardly ever used gas stabilizer (but it has it now), but sometimes used carb cleaner.
As for justifying the cost, for a built in model it should increase the value and desirability of the home a bit, helping offset the cost.
Going back to your AC example, one could either go with a central AC system which cools your whole house which is automatic (ex. turns off when your not in the house and to a set temperature). About $1500
Or you get just a window unit (about $250) for say your bedroom so you can sleep easier on hot nights. BUT, your not paying to cool areas of the house you dont use.
Same with a generator. Yes, a whole house unit professionally installed and which taps into your natural gas line for power is more convenient and can automatically kick on or off when needed. BUT. In the rare event you need electricity you probably can get by with just a small generator.
PLUS, with a small generator - it’s portable. So if you want to haul it to an event say, there it is.
Count me as someone who doesn’t really see the value in most situations. I’ve had my power go out for a couple weeks at a time, and I lived in California during the year of serious blackouts.
It sucks. But then the power comes back on and I’m no worse off for it, give or take some food in the fridge. Hardly worth spending real money to prevent.
Some people have some real needs and I could see a family investing in setting up one house as a refuge. But I can’t imagine spending that kind of money in my case, unless I just happen to have tons of cash to throw around. I think it’s kind of like paying for first class tickets- sure coach sucks and first class is nicer. But the increased comfort doesn’t have any actual lasting effect on my life.
Gas powered portables aren’t terribly expensive and have uses beyond just when the lights go out. Don’t figure you need one? Don’t buy one. Mine has proven useful on any number of occasions.
No, not worth it. My parents have one and it is decent but I don’t see the point.
However if power outages are a common thing I could see buying a 5000 watt gasoline generator. When my parents lost power due to an ice storm that was powerful enough to run the refrigerator, sump pump, water, TV and some lights. That was much better than no electricity. A generator is less than a grand, and used ones are half the cost of new ones. Screwing around on Craigslist I see a few 5000 watt models for $300-400. That is worth it, but 10k to do a house? No.
I installed a 1,000 gallon propane tank underground with the primary purpose to buy a (semi) whole house generator. After months of intensive research, I realized that the Kohler 14 kW standby generator that I wanted wouldn’t cost so much, but add the installation to it and it was out of my financial reach.
I decided to buy a large (7-10 kW) portable generator and convert it to propane fuel. I built a shed for it, ran wire underground from the shed to the inside of the house and bought a manual transfer switch. I installed everything except the final wiring to the transfer switch. I even installed two UPS units to filter the generator power, and one UPS is installed for my computer/communications, the other for my home theater.
The generator doesn’t power my entire house, but I have 10 breaker slots for my:
Well pump
Home Theater
Computer/communications
House fan
Master bedroom
Refrigerator
Tankless water heater
The only “heavy lift” for the generator is the well pump, and the generator handles it nicely. The generator is in an insulated and closed shed, so it’s quiet and I can use my home theater without hearing the generator. I could have a window AC unit or two, but it hasn’t been necessary so far.
I’ve only lost line power a few times since I installed all of this, but every power fail has been for a day or more - once for three days.
I am extremely pleased with the performance - I have everything that I really need powered, and I did all of this for less than the cost of the Kohler 14 kW alone.
Yes, I do have to start and stop the generator myself, and switch and un-switch the transfer panel, but the cost savings are absolutely worth it…and I carry on as if I had no power failure at all.
Ten thousand dollars seems an exorbitant price. My parents had a generator installed in their house last year and the cost was less than two thousand dollars. And this was a professionally installed full house model with an automatic switch and everything.
Twelve years ago, when we got hit by Hurricane Isabel, we lost power for four and a half days, which got pretty damn tiresome. Couldn’t cook (our house is electric), no hot showers, food going bad, grocery stores closed because they had no power either, no available hotel rooms for miles.
Anyhow, a few years after that we got a generator for $300 that will cover the basics: the fridge and freezer, a few lights, the modem, recharging the laptops/tablets every now and then. Also, when it was time to replace the old BBQ grill, I bought one that had a regular cooking burner as well as a grilling surface.
Way I look at the generator is that it’s an insurance policy of sorts. If we get another Isabel, we’ll be able to mitigate the discomfort and disconnectedness of being without power. If we never do, I’ve paid out $300 that I’ve never used, but that’s what happens when you insure yourself against disasters that don’t happen.
It’s really dependent on where you live, what the expected power outages might be, and how often you might expect them, and what sort of impact that may have.
I mean, I live in Dallas, and in the 16 years I’ve lived here, I’ve had a handful of hour-long power outages in severe thunderstorms and ice storms, and ONE extended outage of about 18 hours a couple of years ago in a severe ice storm. A backup generator for me would be money down the toilet- it’s unlikely to be used, and the outages aren’t regional blackouts, just parts of neighborhoods, etc… Had it promised to be several days long, we’d have just gone to a hotel or friends’ house. I have a couple of battery-powered lanterns and radios for when the power goes out though.
My parents, OTOH, live in Houston, are elderly, and in poor health. Plus, they take medications that require refrigeration. With the ever-present hurricane threat in the summer and fall months, it is a prudent measure to have a generator on-hand, if only to keep the fridge cool, although I can’t imagine sitting around in August heat would be good for them at all. As it is, they’re getting one of those backup generators that runs on natural gas installed, so if the power goes out, that thing’ll cut on, and continue to power the house as long as they have natural gas, or the generator fails for some reason.
Regarding the OP’s specific questions - in his situation, I might not have a large standby or even portable generator at all, but I would probably still have a small portable generator. They are cheap enough new, and used ones can be had for a lot less.
The ice storm in Jan. 1997 really spooked me. There is natural gas on our street and, in fact, there is a line going into the house attached to ours we could doubtless cut into. Still the cost of a generator plus transfer switch is more than I would like to spend. All I really need to power is the heating system (oil burner plus pumps) the fridge and the freezer. A couple lights, maybe enough for the laptop and network would also be nice. Still I am up in the air.
Our 7.5kW has made life much, much easier through three extended power outages in four years. (It came with the house, but I probably would have installed one anyway.)
I believe you can get a 6-10kW for under $1500, with installation in the $1000 range. The larger whole-house ones are not that much more expensive now, in the $2-3k range, and are superior in many ways. (It can be a PITA to have only parts of the house powered for several days, even though that’s almost infinitely better than no power at all.)
My suggestion to anyone on the fence is to invest in a properly-wired transfer panel and a generator-ready pad. That should be an under-$1k investment for most houses, and it would let you quickly and safely jack in any standalone generator and power critical circuits in your house. Running a generator in your driveway with a bunch of extension cords is a safety hazard, and inconvenient to boot. (Let’s not even get into the common practice of backfeeding the house through the dryer or other 220VAC port.)
Upgrading to a stationary generator once you’ve proven the need and convenience of a dedicated xfer panel is an easy step… or one you know you can skip, after a few years and/or outages.